Institutional and Perceptional Welfare Boundaries: A Comparative Study of Migrants’ Welfare Experiences Across Three Chinese Metropolises

Despite recent hukou system reforms, Chinese migrants still face persistent challenges accessing welfare benefits in the host city. Building on the distinction between institutional and perceptional welfare boundaries, this study explores the subjective welfare experiences of migrants through a comparative analysis of hukou conversion, residence-permit applications, social-insurance enrollment, and public education in Beijing, Shanghai, and Shenzhen. The findings demonstrate that welfare exclusion operates not only through formal eligibility rules, but also through migrants? perceptions of attainability, administrative burden, and the expected returns of participation. Institutional and perceptional welfare boundaries may therefore overlap, but they do not always coincide. The analysis also identifies important cross-city variation in migrants? welfare experiences and coping strategies, reflecting different levels of local policy openness toward migrants. Together, these findings highlight the complexity of migrant welfare provision in urban China.